Who is the Best?
- Lancaster Wing Chun Assoc.
- Sep 27, 2025
- 4 min read
By Sifu Nick Francis
 Listening to the best of 80's rock on Sirius Radio this week, I found myself truly enjoying some amazing guitar rifts. Completely amazed at the talent beyond me, I wondered,
"Who is the greatest guitarist of all time?"
Here are a few names that quickly came to mind¹.
If you don't know who these people are, here's a summary. |
Brian May |
Sir Brian Harold May (born 19 July 1947) is an English musician who achieved global fame as the lead guitarist and backing vocalist of the rock band Queen, which he co-founded with singer Freddie Mercury and drummer Roger Taylor. |
Jimi Hendrix |
James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix (born Johnny Allen Hendrix; November 27, 1942 – September 18, 1970) was an American singer-songwriter and musician widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential guitarists of all time. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992 |
Carlos Santana |
Carlos Humberto Santana Barragán, born July 20, 1947, is an American guitarist, best known as a founding member of the rock band Santana, who rose to fame in the late 1960s and early 1970s in the United States which pioneered a fusion of rock and roll and Latin American jazz. |
Keith Richards |
Keith Richards, born 18 December 1943, is an English musician, songwriter, singer and record producer who is an original member, guitarist, secondary vocalist, and co-principal songwriter of the Rolling Stones. |
So now that you have listened to a few... you tell me,
"Who is the greatest guitarist of all time?"Once you make your selection, let's try to come to come to a consensus shall we? But first, how shall we qualify this? What criteria shall we use?
If you are following my thinking here, outside of opinion, you are realizing, along with me, that this is quite a difficult thing to do. Isn't it?
I just presented you with five amazing individuals who completely transformed a generation of music. In fact, they all influenced it in such a way that music will never be the same.
Isn't this actually what makes them great! And if this is true, are there others? Instead of limiting these voices, what if we add to them? Who else would you include on the list?
There are so many fantastic guitarists we would need to recognize if we are trying to be exhaustive. All contributing in some way, this list can now be expanded to include anyone who has inspired you in some way.
What good does it do to try to make the list smaller? Out of all the artists we have seen and heard across generations, I think we can agree, it would be so disappointing to minimize all the great talent, contributions and expressions to only one.
If this is making sense to you, let's apply this line of thinking to Wing Chun and even more specifically, the game of Chi Sau.
In the same way these great musicians were never seen in a back alley holding private guitar solo challenges, likewise trying to identify or become the best in Chi Sau can simply lead to a complete waste of time.
Like any art, learning is the highest call of artist. Crafting your expression is having something to say and having a place where it can be shared.
Wing Chun is an Expression.
Learning to play Chi Sau to me is like learning to play a creative guitar rift. At first when learning, some notes work together, some notes don't. When they don't work, we keep practicing. We go back to playing scales. We let our imagination guide us, never once thinking about quitting because we didn't like the sounds we just strung together.
Yes, Wing Chun is for self defense. Yes, Wing Chun is for health and wholeness. Yes, Wing Chun is about building friendships. Yes, Wing Chun its about developing confidence and living a balanced life.
Even more so,
Wing Chun is a human expression waiting to be shared and enjoyed with others.
It is not shared through techniques alone, but also through acts of kindness, discipline, character development, wisdom, learning, etc.
At its best, the expression of Wing Chun can be seen anytime the best of us being shared with the world.
This is exactly what Kung Fu literally means... "Hardworking Skill".
We learn the shapes. We learn to respond and flow as our sensitivities inform the flow of those shapes. We learn that we have something to share.
There is a rumor (perhaps true?) that when Jimi Hendrix was asked what was it like to be the greatest guitarist of all time, he said, "I don't know, you'll have to ask Eric Clapton." This is truly the mark of a great artist, they never set out to be the best, the simply give themselves permission to share their best.
My point is this, when Wing Chun feels like a competition, we all become less. When we play together and listen to one another, beautiful things happen.
What is inside of you that we need you to share with us?
... Let's play together.
|
"The Lancaster Wing Chun Association exists to create a place where people can learn traditional Ip Man Wing Chun in a safe supportive environment." |
Comments